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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27946835">Sharpe's Pulse</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/InkSiren/pseuds/InkSiren'>InkSiren</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Sharpe's Fanfic [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Sharpe (TV), Sharpe - All Media Types, Sharpe Series - Bernard Cornwell</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Cuddling &amp; Snuggling, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Heartbeats, Hearts, Other, Romance, Team as Family, Warning for brief mention of JANE</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 23:21:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,124</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27946835</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/InkSiren/pseuds/InkSiren</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Richard has had many people love him and many people watch over him through out the years.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Sharpe's Fanfic [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2034673</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Sharpe's Pulse</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>So I hate how the show ends Lucille and Richard's relationship so we're retconning that for how my friend tells me the books end. (I'm not there yet I'm all the way back in Fortress, I'm working on it).</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Richard was never fully conscious of it, but he had a lot of people watching his back.</p><p>Patrick, he knew of course. The other rifles he trusted with his life, and while he knew every (most every, though he had thought Jane true at one point) lover he had would do her part, he didn't realize just how carefully they watched him.</p><p>He didn't know that Teresa learned (and remembered, cherished) early while tracing his features in his sleep that the pulse in the bridge of his nose and across the vulnerable point of his temple was easy to find with a gentle touch.</p><p>In a way, she valued it more <em>because</em> it took gentleness to find, and only someone he trusted implicitly would have the chance.</p><p>She also discovered that he <em>melted</em> when she pressed her lips to his throat and rested them there. He'd sigh, and relax, and let his head tilt back in the straw and she'd count his pulse as his breathing slowed and he fell asleep.</p><p>It usually only took a few hundred beats of his heart to close his eyes and slow his breathing, and she'd pull away and trace the line of his nose and card back his hair and have to remember to breathe because he was so beautiful.</p><p>She knew he was truly asleep when his heart dropped to fifty, and it struck her every time how deeply he trusted her.</p><p>He never did figure out how she knew when he was faking, and she didn't reveal her secret.</p><p>Patrick almost never felt the need to use a traditional pulse point for his superior officer since the man's heart seemed ready to bolt at any moment. Often, Patrick could feel it through the officer's braid just fine and when he couldn't it was a simple thing to slip his hand beneath instead.</p><p>Richard only once gave him a curious glance when he did it, but Patrick mumbled something about checking for broken ribs and Richard gave him the small smile that said he knew he was lying.</p><p>The day Patrick had to go to Richard's throat for a sign of life instead was the day Patrick was really terrified he'd lost him.</p><p>(Patrick never had to suffer losing Richard, in the end. Richard wasn't so blessed when it came to Patrick, and the day Patrick breathed his last Richard felt it even though news did not reach him for weeks.)</p><p>Hagman once had to bind Richard's leg after it had been stabbed.</p><p>"You've got some variety to your scars now, sir," he joked, though the paleness of Richard's face and the sheer spread of blood had him very worried. "Bullets and blades, won't want you to get too comfortable."</p><p>"No, forbid me that," Richard croaked, eyes squeezing shut with a gasp.</p><p>Discreetly, Dan pressed a little harder on the thigh, feeling carefully for the artery running through Sharpe's leg.</p><p>To his relief, he found it intact and throbbing a good ways away.</p><p>"You're alright, sir," he said softly. "You'll be alright."</p><p>Once, Perkins saw Richard get cracked in the head in a skirmish and he only just managed to grab his Major's wrist to pull him out of the fray as Harper came in like the wrath of God. Certain they were safe with that at their backs, Perkins had the time to steady his nerves and shift his fingers.</p><p>He smiled, relieved, and Richard was opening his eyes by the time Patrick turned anxiously back to check on them.</p><p>(Jane once had to move her head from Richard's chest because his warmth was too much and his heartbeat was too loud. She claimed it was aggravating her headache. He took it well, but if she'd cared enough to look she would have seen the hurt expression in his eyes.)</p><p>Ellie clung to him all night, and when they woke she kissed his chest through the fabric of his jacket and he felt a shiver blossom out from the place as though there'd been nothing in the way at all.</p><p>Lucille taught him to cradle their firstborn against his chest when Patrick-Henri wouldn't sleep, and the sheer wonder of what he was holding stole Richard's breath away for hours.</p><p>Lucille smiled, rubbed her hands across his shoulders, and kissed him where Teresa once had.</p><p>His eyes fluttered closed, and he felt his heart skip a beat against the warm weight of their son cradled beside it.</p><p>He never knew, but many years later his second daughter would realize in the after wake of a nightmare that her father had the same rapid thudding in his chest that she felt suffocating hers. It frightened Dominque at first, until he hugged her up close and she realized that the thudding was coming from the wonderful (<em>safe</em>) sound that she’d been listening to her whole life</p><p>(She’d woken up, weeping and calling for him and he'd run in looking frantic and scooped her up like she weighed nothing, asking with such worry what was wrong that she could only shake her head and bury it in his chest.)</p><p>She'd loved cuddling up to him since she was very small, but for the first time she knew that the sound that sent her off to sleep was the same one that felt fear for her. She hiccupped against him and sniffed, and listened to the</p><p>
  <em>Thudthudthudthudthud</em>
</p><p>against her cheek until it made her forget what had frightened her.</p><p>Years later, when Dominique was old enough to understand the heart and the significance of it, she took what moments she could to listen to her father's. It made her feel calm and loved, and she knew she wouldn't have it forever.</p><p>(As a young teen he'd been letting her play in his jacket and she'd discovered the hole fraying again in the left breast. It upset her so severely he'd had to coax her with an apple and that pleading look to tell him what was wrong. He'd wiped her tears in the end and kissed her hair and shown her that there were faded scars but no wound in his chest that still mattered.)</p><p>While his children were still small, on many chilly mornings, he and Lucille would wake to find that Richard had become the warm pillow for all three of them. He laughed, and turned his head to kiss Lucille’s hair, and Dominique would mumble half in French and turn back over, her fingers twisting in Richard’s shirt. He felt his chest swell with affection and Lucille smiled, shifting to press a kiss to his sternum.</p><p>“<em>Mon cœur, retourne dormir</em>.”</p><p>He smiled, gently nudging her chin up so he could capture her lips. “<em>Comme vous le souhaitez</em>.”</p>
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